According to numerous eyewitness reports, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just exploded during a test on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral. This rocket was set to launch on Saturday, Sept. 3 on a mission to deliver Facebook’s first satellite to orbit.

It’s about making vulnerable newcomers to the country feel at home. The concept of his site, called EmergencyBnB, resembles Airbnb, where people list their homes or a bedroom for travelers to rent by the night. But on EmergencyBnB, no money is exchanged and the people looking for places to stay are often in a crisis with nowhere to go.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is well-known for his use of social media in Canada. He will be able to reach out to Chinese people during his visit through social media services Weibo and WeChat, which are highly popular in China though tightly controlled.

No one thought schoolgirls from Mumbai’s Dharavi slum could code mobile apps. The girls didn’t even know what an app was until recently. But for the past few months, 67 girls have been taking coding lessons at the weekends with a local non-profit, the Slum Innovation Project.

Obtaining real-time and actionable information on the needs of affected populations has long been a priority for humanitarians; so keeping up with new technologies that could improve existing data collection systems is also a necessity.

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) has created I Protect, an app that allows Android phone users to key in a code when they are being detained, which sends three text messages to contacts and an email containing the location of their arrest to the ECRF.

There are more white nationalists and neo-Nazis on Twitter than members and advocates of ISIS. The follower growth of "major white nationalist movement and organization accounts" grew by 600% from 3,542 in 2012 to 25,406 followers in 2016.

In a world of evidence-based policy and data-driven decision-making, it’s time for the human rights advocacy world to more fully embrace new methods. While data is important for human rights advocacy, the risks of misleading people are also very real and advocates must insist on rigor.

A new radio drama for Syrians hopes to bridge divides and help people deal with the pressures of prolonged conflict. By portraying experiences common to many Syrians, Hay El-Matar hopes to foster peace and help people across different ethnic, geographical and religious divides to cope with the prolonged conflict.

Afghanistan has made great strides in establishing media and communications outlets; today there are more than 250 independent radio stations and 100 TV channels across the country. However, very little is known about the ways in which Afghans, including these women, actually engage in information exchange.

The Associated Press reports from Jerusalem that “the Israeli government and Facebook have agreed to work together to determine how to tackle incitement on the social media network.” These meetings are taking place “as the government pushes ahead with legislative steps meant to force social networks to rein in content that Israel says incites violence.”

Internet access is clearly linked to individuals’ socioeconomic status and the level of development where they live. These factors contribute to “digital divides” seen throughout the world. In the new analysis, Nils Weidmann and his coauthors aimed to shed light on a factor that isn’t as well understood: political divisions between ethnic groups.

Introducing crowdsourcing mechanisms into the aid business would overcome many of these problems and direct more funds to where they are most needed, wanted and effectively used. Such an approach could be inspired by popular sites such as GlobalGiving, Kickstarter and  Indiegogo – the crowdfunding industry globally raised $34B last year.

Investigators at The Sentry, an initiative co-founded by actor George Clooney, said during a press conference Monday that they used information from Facebook and Instagram to confirm how officials had spent the profits they made from controlling South Sudan’s natural resources.

Security experts warn that African governments and commercial online services are vulnerable to criminals, who have the potential to disrupt critical infrastructure. But critics say that these laws could also be used to clamp down on the use of online platforms that promote good governance, express dissent and mobilize citizen engagement.

World leaders gathered for the UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants this week to agree on a more coordinated global response to escalating levels of forced displacement. It’s vital that data and evidence are at the forefront of decision making.

Collaborating with the Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSMA), which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, and non-profit global campaign Project Everyone, the UN created the Action app, which also includes associated SDG targets, explanatory videos, key data, and suggestions on how people can take action to help achieve them.

The debate which occurred around the Napalm-girl photo — and over Facebook's censorship of imagery surrounding breast-feeding mothers and whether such a natural interaction should be allowed to be shared publicly or not — helps to reveal the complex nature of the politics of imagery, and draws our attention to the often-hidden nature of censorship.

Three years ago, the UAE government prosecuted en masse 94 government critics and activists who called for reform in the Emirates. Since this time, there has been no Arab Spring-like uprising. Yet the state-sponsored repression of human rights advocates and journalists continues unabated.

Started in November 2015, Bangalore-based SEEK is an interactive mobile led organization development (OD) intervention platform that utilizes technology and the power of research to facilitate change and culture building across all levels in the organization through a process of enrollment, motivation and empowerment. 

In the five years since the Syrian conflict began, many Syrian independent media activists have joined forces and combined resources to provide trustworthy, sophisticated and far-reaching coverage of the war. 

AltspaceVR has created a virtual replica of NBC’s Democracy Plaza in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza, the backdrop for network anchors during the debates and on election night. Political junkies will be able to invite their friends to join them in Virtual Democracy Plaza for NBC’s four virtual debate watch parties, political comedy shows, and the vote count drama the night of the election.

Robust and actionable information can help those at risk understand and prepare for hazards. However, such information is often inaccessible, disparate, or nonexistent. Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery launched the Open Data for Resilience Initiative as a way to harness innovations in the areas of open data, civic technology and user-centered design.

Facebook has apologized for disabling the personal accounts of several editors and executives at two major Palestinian news publications. Facebook says the accounts were mistakenly suspended after being reported for violating the site's community standards, but the publications believe the incident is related to Israel's recent push to combat online incitement to violence.

Social media is a powerful tool. It can broaden our perspectives and put previously hidden events in front of our eyes in real time. This power is never more apparent than during a catastrophe or conflict. For the best part of a decade, media coverage of war has been accompanied by images from civilians in the streets with camera phones and Twitter accounts.

Tackling extremism involves empathy, understanding the goods that extreme groups provide for their members. The Redirect initiative does this, taking seriously the search terms that those people with an already positive view of ISIS are using.

In Rwanda, and across the developing world, many people lack the technological skills needed to participate in this increasingly digitized economy. Indego Africa’s new Technology Training for the Workplace (TTW) program in Rwanda was created to help close that gap.

AltspaceVR has created a virtual replica of NBC’s Democracy Plaza in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza, the backdrop for network anchors during the debates and on election night. Political junkies will be able to invite their friends to join them in Virtual Democracy Plaza for NBC’s four virtual debate watch parties, political comedy shows, and the vote count drama the night of the election.

Robust and actionable information can help those at risk understand and prepare for hazards. However, such information is often inaccessible, disparate, or nonexistent. Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery launched the Open Data for Resilience Initiative as a way to harness innovations in the areas of open data, civic technology and user-centered design.

Facebook has apologized for disabling the personal accounts of several editors and executives at two major Palestinian news publications. Facebook says the accounts were mistakenly suspended after being reported for violating the site's community standards, but the publications believe the incident is related to Israel's recent push to combat online incitement to violence.

Social media is a powerful tool. It can broaden our perspectives and put previously hidden events in front of our eyes in real time. This power is never more apparent than during a catastrophe or conflict. For the best part of a decade, media coverage of war has been accompanied by images from civilians in the streets with camera phones and Twitter accounts.

Tackling extremism involves empathy, understanding the goods that extreme groups provide for their members. The Redirect initiative does this, taking seriously the search terms that those people with an already positive view of ISIS are using.

In Rwanda, and across the developing world, many people lack the technological skills needed to participate in this increasingly digitized economy. Indego Africa’s new Technology Training for the Workplace (TTW) program in Rwanda was created to help close that gap.

Colombia's community of Internet users isn't unanimous about the proposed settlement with FARC, however, and a vocal part of society says the agreement asks too much compromise. The war should continue, these critics argue, arguing that fears about the deal are legitimate.

WarWire is a browser-based program that allows users to easily search geo-tagged social media posts by location or keyword. The program is aimed at journalists and researchers who need to report on and analyze a conflict zone that’s too dangerous to physically monitor.

Meier used Ushahidi, a free and open-source mapping technology, to put together a crisis map during the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. He believes using this technology will make crisis mapping even more effective for disaster response.

As fears increase of further conflict between the two nuclear powers, many in India and Pakistan are urging common ground. Facebook and Twitter users have been utilizing the hashtag #ProfileforPeace and changing their profile pictures to a message for their political leaders. 

On Bana and her mother Fatemah's Twitter account, @alabedbana which now has more than 4,000 followers since they began tweeting on September 24th with the singular message: “I need peace,” Bana and Fatemah offer snippets of life under the bombs, and images of the carnage in their city.

Mission Ready was designed by the NGO RedR UK and Digital Training Solutions (DTS) to put humanitarians through their paces, making them less vulnerable and equipping them to deal with risk. The app helps prepare and empower staff in conflict areas to make decisions in dangerous situations.

The companies provided the data to Geofeedia, a company that analyzes social media posts to deliver real-time surveillance information to help 500 law enforcement agencies track and respond to crime. The social media companies cut off Geofeedia’s access to the streams of user data in recently after the ACLU discovered them and alerted the companies about looming public exposure.

A North Carolina flood victim trapped in his attic for 14 hours was rescued thanks to a drone operator, the perseverance of family, and the cross-country reach of social media.

Atrocities against journalists in the civil war include the high-profile beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, while reporters – such as the late Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times of London – have been caught in indiscriminate bombing; then there are kidnappings, threats and intimidation of journalists and ordinary citizens trying to document their lives.

South Sudanese communities online are increasingly sharing extremely graphic and often horrifying photos of purported atrocities as the security situation in the country deteriorates. Some of these images are authentic and depict actual victims of violence in South Sudan whilst others are taken from other contexts and are deliberately used to fan ethnic hatred.

Local aid workers are often ignored after being recruited to humanitarian technology and communications teams. Interviews revealed that many of these workers feel money is often wasted on vanity projects because it attracts donors in the competitive humanitarian sector.

The United Nations’ humanitarian information source on global crises and disasters has just rolled out a new feature — on mobile. ReliefWeb, the specialized digital service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has launched four mobile apps, each catering to the specific interests of its users.

The companies provided the data to Geofeedia, a company that analyzes social media posts to deliver real-time surveillance information to help 500 law enforcement agencies track and respond to crime. The social media companies cut off Geofeedia’s access to the streams of user data in recently after the ACLU discovered them and alerted the companies about looming public exposure.

A North Carolina flood victim trapped in his attic for 14 hours was rescued thanks to a drone operator, the perseverance of family, and the cross-country reach of social media.

Atrocities against journalists in the civil war include the high-profile beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, while reporters – such as the late Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times of London – have been caught in indiscriminate bombing; then there are kidnappings, threats and intimidation of journalists and ordinary citizens trying to document their lives.

South Sudanese communities online are increasingly sharing extremely graphic and often horrifying photos of purported atrocities as the security situation in the country deteriorates. Some of these images are authentic and depict actual victims of violence in South Sudan whilst others are taken from other contexts and are deliberately used to fan ethnic hatred.

Local aid workers are often ignored after being recruited to humanitarian technology and communications teams. Interviews revealed that many of these workers feel money is often wasted on vanity projects because it attracts donors in the competitive humanitarian sector.

The United Nations’ humanitarian information source on global crises and disasters has just rolled out a new feature — on mobile. ReliefWeb, the specialized digital service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has launched four mobile apps, each catering to the specific interests of its users.

Ecuador has confirmed that it has temporarily cut off internet access in its embassy in London to Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, over fears that he was using it to interfere in the US presidential election.

Now, however, with  the Internet and the technologies it has spawned — which the Ethiopian government has spent millions developing the necessary infrastructure for — more and more dissident voices are being heard, but often without the restraint or commitment to accuracy of more mainstream media.

Mandalay is the heartland of the radical Buddhist Ma Ba Tha movement, which has proven particularly sophisticated in using Facebook for attacks on Muslims. Posts of fake news widely shared on Facebook have helped inflame sectarian Buddhist-Muslim violence that has cost hundreds of lives in various parts of Myanmar since 2012.

One group that’s risen to address this tenuous challenge is CtrlSec, an anonymous Twitter collective with a goal to flag as many ISIS-affiliated accounts for removal as possible. From its main handle, it tweets out batches of flagged accounts several dozen times a day.

The refugee crisis prompted "digital humanitarianism," an explosion of apps and digital tools to help displaced people on their journey. This has been a huge amount of duplication in the sector, with some tools failing to get off the ground. “Failing fast” might be a badge of honor in Silicon Valley, but what are the risks if vulnerable refugees rely on an app that disappears from one day to the next?

Johannesburg has used geospatial data for analyzing inequality and poverty, job-housing mismatch, spatial disconnection, low walkability, and land-use defects. This data then informed city planning and helped officials prepare development scenario options for the future.

With the clearing of the camp comes the demise of a politically potent symbol. But for many of the migrants squatting there, their departure is just the next chapter. And as has been the case throughout Europe’s refugee crisis, a flurry of tech innovations have sprung up to lend a hand to people who make long and perilous voyages into unknown countries that receive them uneasily or with outright hostility.

Despite ultimately futile efforts to pass a bill that was seen as a pretext to censor Nigerians on social media, lawmakers in Nigeria are now taking advantage of the popularity of social media platforms by live-streaming its plenary sessions on Facebook to connect with more citizens.

Media companies like AFP, CNN and others are increasingly capturing dramatic aerial footage with small drones (UAVs) following major disasters around the world. These companies can be part of the solution when it comes to adding value to humanitarian efforts on the ground. But they can also be a part of the problem.

Israeli authorities are pressuring social media companies to do more to remove posts which could incite violence, including drafting laws - which digital rights groups say would be unworkable - to compel platforms to take down content that could incite violence. 

The MapSwipe app’s primary purpose is to make detailed and useful maps for humanitarian organizations, but it allows users to provides a service to the users, too. Beyond entertainment, it offers a window into the world, and encourages exploration and engagement with foreign and unknown landscapes.

Many of the extraordinary political machinations that followed the Brexit vote were reportedly organised – or scuppered – by text messages between Boris Johnson, David Cameron, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, Nick Boles, Craig Oliver, and Lucy Thomas .

With the clearing of the camp comes the demise of a politically potent symbol. But for many of the migrants squatting there, their departure is just the next chapter. And as has been the case throughout Europe’s refugee crisis, a flurry of tech innovations have sprung up to lend a hand to people who make long and perilous voyages into unknown countries that receive them uneasily or with outright hostility.

Israeli authorities are pressuring social media companies to do more to remove posts which could incite violence, including drafting laws - which digital rights groups say would be unworkable - to compel platforms to take down content that could incite violence. 

Despite ultimately futile efforts to pass a bill that was seen as a pretext to censor Nigerians on social media, lawmakers in Nigeria are now taking advantage of the popularity of social media platforms by live-streaming its plenary sessions on Facebook to connect with more citizens.

Media companies like AFP, CNN and others are increasingly capturing dramatic aerial footage with small drones (UAVs) following major disasters around the world. These companies can be part of the solution when it comes to adding value to humanitarian efforts on the ground. But they can also be a part of the problem.

The MapSwipe app’s primary purpose is to make detailed and useful maps for humanitarian organizations, but it allows users to provides a service to the users, too. Beyond entertainment, it offers a window into the world, and encourages exploration and engagement with foreign and unknown landscapes.

Many of the extraordinary political machinations that followed the Brexit vote were reportedly organised – or scuppered – by text messages between top officials including Boris Johnson, David Cameron, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, Nick Boles, Craig Oliver, and Lucy Thomas.

Activists and tribal members are racing to release new footage of the protests against a controversial four-state oil pipeline from North Dakota to Indiana. They can’t get solid reception at Highway 1806, the site of the protests, in North Dakota, so they’re exploring various forms of technology and media to upload content.

Over the next few weeks, a range of refugee benefits will be merged onto a single bank card, as this data-intensive aid operation bets big on cash and consolidation. UNHCR is hoping that unified cash-based systems like this pilot project in Lebanon might revolutionise the piecemeal way in which aid is currently delivered.

Chat apps have become essential links between participants in newsworthy events and reporters covering those events. Because political activists often communicate via groups on chat app, journalists have been able to cultivate sources and gather news by gaining access to those conversations some private and other public.

Our data suggests that in the Arabic-speaking region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) there is a great deal of humanitarian concern for refugees, little fear-mongering toward them, and significant agreement that regional governments can and should take significant responsibility.

Opposition candidates faced arbitrary bans and censorship in publishing their “election programmes”, which lay out their platforms. Under Belarusian law, state-run media outlets should give an equal opportunity to all candidates to publish their programmes, but editors of state-run media refused to publish some which contained criticism of the authorities.

Away from shuttered news rooms and busy police stations, trolls have intensified a campaign to intimidate journalists online, hacking social media accounts, threatening physical and sexual abuse, and orchestrating “virtual lynch mobs” of pro-government voices to silence criticism.

A Kenyan crowdsourcing platform used to monitor violence during the country’s 2007 election will be deployed on voting day in the US to allow citizens to report cases of “voter intimidation, misdirection, or any other attempts to keep someone from voting”.

According to Patrick Meier, an expert on humanitarian crises and technology, Facebook's Safety Check  tool has already come to serve a fundamental need in disaster zones—giving people answers about the specific individuals they care about in a mass event—at a scale and speed that was never possible before. But Facebook is getting ready to turn Safety Check into something much bigger.

With word of a new coup or unrest, news bureaus often have to scramble to send their field reporters to cover the action—and in some cases, by the time they get boots on the ground the presiding government may have shut down the communications infrastructure, making it difficult to broadcast or upload footage without a satellite connection. 

Human rights monitors have raised concerns about press freedom in Myanmar after a journalist at an English-language newspaper said she was fired following government criticism of her reporting of allegations of rape by soldiers.

Members of Peace on the Street and other similar groups have found their voices after the rejection of the peace accord. In addition to their various ways of mobilization, social media has been utilized to easily communicate among groups and to engage people in searching for peaceful paths to end violence and war in Colombia.

The social media company has created Community Help, a new tool tied to the Safety Check feature that lets users ask for and offer help after marking themselves safe during a crisis. Facebook announced the tool at its first Social Good Forum in New York on Thursday.

The move came the same day that Twitter announced a new push against hate speech and harassment on the site. The company announced new features to allow users to control what content appears in their notifications, as well as confirming a change to its training process for moderators on the site, and a new set of tools for reporting hate speech.

In May 2017, South Africa will launch the continent's first private satellite into space. It's been designed by school girls, within a STEM program. It's part of a project by South Africa's Meta Economic Development Organization (MEDO) working with Morehead State University in the US.

VR and immersive 360-degree storytelling provides a way to cut out the noise and put consumers closer to reality on the ground in some of the world’s toughest and most extraordinary places than they’re ever likely to have the opportunity to do. VR’s impact has the potential to be life-changing.

For decades Freedom House has been ranking the world on free speech, political and civil rights.  And for the sixth consecutive year, it has found Internet freedom on a decline. Over the past year, the pressure fell increasingly on social media and messaging tools, often to quash protests or dissent

Several current and former Facebook employees tell NPR there is a lot of internal turmoil about how the platform does and doesn't censor content that users find offensive. And outside Facebook, the public is regularly confounded by the company's decisions — around controversial posts and around fake news.

“The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies,” a spokesperson wrote. Twitter confirmed that everyone, including government officials, were subject to the policy: “The Twitter Rules apply to all accounts,” a spokesman wrote.